The Muslim Brotherhood is denying charges Saturday brought by Egyptian authorities alleging that members of the Islamist organization aided Hamas by providing components used to build aerial drones.
Egyptian security forces detained four people and have accused them of plotting to buy fuel for a pilotless aircraft for Hamas, security sources said on Saturday.
The sources said two of those detained were members of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood. They said the two men had given 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,700) to two other Egyptians to buy fuel and a remote control device for a small aircraft.
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Mohamed Mursi, a member of the Brotherhood's governing Guidance Office, said the accusations were "completely baseless" and denied any Brotherhood involvement in such a plan. Spokesmen for Egypt's interior ministry declined to comment.
The Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported on Saturday that Egyptian prosecutors are investigating a group of Muslim Brotherhood members alleged to have provided Hamas operatives with equipment and technology for purposes of developing unmanned aerial vehicles.
Specifically, the newspaper stated that authorities have focused their inquiry on the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood cell, a professor who teaches at Al Azhar University, a well-known Islamic institution.
In addition, investigators also suspect an additional Brotherhood member who was thought to be responsible for the group's activities along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip last January, when Hamas breached the fence separating the Strip with Sinai.
The goal of the initiative was to manufacture aerial drones which would then be fitted with explosives that would be detonated by remote control, Al Ahram, a paper long identified with Egyptian officialdom, reported Saturday.
The group of suspects is also reported to include members of the Hamas military wing, the Izz a-Din al Qassam Brigades.
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